Official Metro-North App Is Here – And It’s Free

December 19th, 2013

Metro-North customers can now turn to an official app for real-time train information and more. The app, known as Metro-North Train Time, is available for Android and iPhone. It is free to download and free of ads.

Built from Metro-North’s web-based Train Time™ data feed, the app makes it easy to find out – with nothing more than the tap of a finger – when the next trains are due at your station, whether each one is running on time, and which track each one is slated to use.

The app also makes it easy to find out fare information, see railroad maps, and learn about stations, including waiting room hours, parking availability, connecting transit services, status of accessibility for the disabled, elevator and escalator status, and phone numbers for area taxi companies. The app also includes real-time service status, brief up-to-the-minute service alerts, railroad news items, info on special deals and getaway packages, and more detailed notices about service changes resulting from planned track work. The app also includes information about connecting with the railroad via social media, email and 511.

“This app is designed to be the definitive mobile go-to source for all the information you would need in order to ride a Metro-North train,” said MTA Chairman and CEO Thomas F. Prendergast. “We always say ‘Know Before You Go’ because it makes traveling with us a lot easier, and these apps put a trove of useful information right into your hands when you are on the move.”

“We know how important real-time information is to our customers, and that’s why we’ve been making efforts to expand and improve upon the information we provide,” said Metro-North Railroad President Howard Permut. “The Metro-North Train Time app builds upon our existing initiatives to expand information for customers, including the creation of Train Time via the web, bringing real-time digital screens to more stations and centralizing staff who create email and text alerts and audio announcements at our new Customer Communications Center.”

The app’s appearance was created with the help of Canvas, which had worked with Metro-North Railroad previously for an app entitled Grand Central, which combines information about where to eat, shop, and run errands within Grand Central with Metro-North track listings and departure times.

If you don’t have an Android or iPhone smartphone, and even if you do, you can continue to get real-time train information through CooCoo, by sending a text message to 266266 with your origin and destination stations.

The departure tracks are posted in the app at the same time that they are posted at digital signs in stations, where available. Tracks are usually available more than an hour in advance. Metro-North activated its Train Time™ data service at 67 stations in January 2010, and expanded it two months later to all 96 of the currently enabled stations.